Field
Various features relate to interface devices for video and audio, and in particular, to interface devices adapted to receive data in any one of a plurality of format types, convert the data to one predetermined format type, add metadata, and output the converted data including the metadata for analysis and/or storage.
Background
Today's surgical operating rooms contain a myriad of technology. The technology includes equipment that provides video as an output. As used herein, the term video is meant to encompass, for example, moving images of live action (e.g., images of an interior of a patient's body as a laparoscope is maneuvered therein, of an interior of a large intestine as an endoscope is advanced through the intestine, or of an operating room as operating room staff move about therein), still images (e.g., individual frames captured from a moving image of live action), real-time or near real time images that have been generated with the aid of a computing device (e.g., images of an interior of a patient's body generated by a sonogram machine, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, or an X-ray machine), as well as graphic representations of static, semi-static, and dynamic measurements of parameters (e.g., an image from a screen of an electrocardiograph machine, a display of bold oxygen concentration, or blood pressure). The preceding list is demonstrative and is not intended to be limiting. Reference to video is also intended to encompass the signals presented to video monitors (e.g., monitors, televisions, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs)) that drive the circuitry of video monitors to generate imagery. Some pieces of equipment may add some aspect of patient identification to their images and this information may typically be provided outside of the boundary edges of the images.
The video may be provided to video monitors integrated with the equipment (e.g., a video monitor integrated with a sonogram machine) and/or to video monitors within the operating room, and/or to video monitors outside of the operating room. The video may also be recorded at the time of its production, either by a recording device integrated with the equipment or by an external recording device coupled to the equipment.
Video may be obtained, for example, from video pickup devices (and circuitry associated therewith) or video output ports of medical devices such as endoscopes, laparoscopes, orthoscopes, microscopes, robotic surgical systems, surgical-light mounted video cameras, and video cameras mounted in the operating room that provide images of the operating room itself. Additional video may be obtained, for example, in the form of graphic displays of vital signs, such as those associated with electrocardiograph devices, bold oxygen monitoring device, and blood pressure monitoring device. Still further, video imagery may be obtained from fluoroscopes, X-ray machines (commonly referred to as “CR machines”), magnetic resonance image (MRI) machines, computed axial tomography (CAT) scanners, and/or other types of imaging devices. The preceding lists are demonstrative and are not intended to be limiting.
Instruments, machines, and/or devices found in today's operating rooms are made by many manufacturers. Each manufacturer may have a different preference for how its video signals are presented to video monitors (e.g., component video, red-green-blue (RGB) video, separate or super video (S-Video), digital signals) and what formats are used (e.g., analog NTSC or PAL or digital High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), among others). Additionally, video signals may be provided from the equipment to the video monitors wirelessly, via copper wire, or via fiber optic cable. As used herein, a video output of any given piece of equipment may be referred to as a video feed.
There presently exists system that provides digital, video routing and display solutions to such environments as, for example, operating rooms, hybrid rooms, catheterization suites, interventional suites, and electrophysiology (EP) labs. The system may be configured with videoconferencing and streaming, multiview windowing, image capturing, video recording, and/or hands-free voice over Internet Protocol (IP) communication. The system may provide a user with comprehensive control over the system and its functionality, including, for example, touch routing of images from video and data sources to video monitor monitors.
The system may be useful, for example, for display of the video imagery of one or more pieces of equipment on one or more video monitors that are not integral to the equipment itself. Such video monitors may be conveniently positioned for a surgeon's use during surgery. The system may also be useful, for example, for remote (i.e., in a location other than the operating room) observation, training, and conferencing. The components of the system may be dispersed to multiple locations; some components may be in the operating room while other components may be outside of the operating room. The components of the system may be coupled to one another via wire, fiber optic cable, and/or via radio waves (i.e., wireless).
While the system is useful, several problems exist. For example, it is possible that the video from a given piece of equipment may not be displayed on a video monitor, despite the system having been programmed to route the video from the given piece of equipment to the video monitor. It may not be possible for operating room staff (or hospital staff in general) to determine if the lack of a video image is due to a failure of the given piece of equipment, a failure of the system or one of its components, or a failure of any of the wired, wireless, and/or fiber optic interconnections between the given piece of equipment, a server of the system, and the video monitor. Trouble-shooting such a problem can be time consuming and is, in general, not something that operating room staff (or hospital staff in general) are trained or equipped for.
Additionally, while the system may help in locating various pieces of equipment within the hospital setting, it is not able to provide information about the equipment with a degree of granularity that would be helpful, for example, in distinguishing between features of two pieces of equipment that share a same general name, such as “microscope.”
Additionally, the system cannot apply such granular information (i.e., equipment information), and/or patient information, to video images presented on video monitors. Nor is the system able to remove patient information (or not display patient information if it is already present in a video stream) from a video monitor in a public area, such as at a conference, so as to comply with the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) regulations.
What is needed is a system, device, and/or method that solves one or more of these and/or other problems which may be recognized in the existing system.